Systems and methods for recording media assets

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods are provided to record portions of media assets. User request is received to record a media asset together with a criterion for recording portions of that media asset. A content recognition algorithm is executed against segments of the media asset to determine a set of keywords associated with those segments. Separately a set of keywords associated with the criterion is generated. Sets of keywords are compared and segments that match the criterion are discovered. If it is determined that a first segment and third segment each match the criterion and a second segment does not, a delete indicator is added to the second segment and the third and first segments are compared. If those segments match the delete indicator is removed from the second segment.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/078,436, filed Mar. 23, 2016, now U.S. Pat. No. 10,362,355. Thedisclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety.

BACKGROUND

The amount of media content available to users today is enormous. Whenusers are not able to consume media assets, at the time those mediaassets are broadcast, users schedule those media assets for recording.However, users sometimes desire to only consume specific portions ofmedia assets; thus, those users may want the ability to record only thedesired portions. Furthermore, optimizing storage of recorded media canbe important from both capacity and cost perspectives.

SUMMARY

Therefore, systems and methods are provided herein to record portions ofmedia assets. Recording portions of media assets enables the system toboth present parts of media assets that users desire to consume and alsoto ensure that those media assets occupy an optimal amount of storagespace. Specifically, a media guidance application may be configured toreceive user input of a media asset to record, together with a criterionfor recording portions of that media asset. The media guidanceapplication may, upon receiving input from the user, schedule the mediaasset for recording, or, if the media asset is already in progress,start recording the media asset. When the media guidance applicationstarts recording the media asset, the media guidance application maycreate segments corresponding to portions of the media asset. The mediaguidance application may execute a content recognition algorithm againsteach segment in order to determine a set of keywords associated withthose segments. The media guidance application may also determine a setof keywords associated with the criterion. The media guidanceapplication may compare the keywords associated with each segment withthe keywords associated with the criterion until a first segment isfound that matches the criterion.

When the media guidance application matches a segment to the criterion,the media guidance application may determine whether the next segmentmatches the criterion via the same keyword comparison described above.If the next segment does not match the criterion, the media guidanceapplication may store a delete indicator with that segment (e.g., in themetadata associated with that segment or in the segment map). The mediaguidance application may compare the next segment with the criterionand, upon determining that this segment matches the criterion, determinewhether the first segment matches the third segment. If the mediaguidance application determines that the first segment matches the thirdsegment, then the media guidance application may remove the deleteindicator from the second segment in order to retain continuity withinthe media asset of the segments related to one portion.

For example, the media guidance application may receive input from auser to record a specific broadcast of the Winter Olympics with acriterion of “ice hockey.” A single broadcast of the Winter Olympics mayinclude multiple sports and multiple hockey games. Thus, when the mediaguidance application starts recording the specific broadcast, the mediaguidance application may add a delete indicator to all the segmentsuntil a first instance of an ice hockey game starts. As the mediaguidance application continues to record the ice hockey game, segmentsthat are not related to ice hockey (e.g., news breaks, coverage of ahighlight of another Olympic sport, etc.) may appear while the icehockey game is on. The media guidance application may retain thosesegments within the ice hockey game in order to retain continuity of thegame. However, if a segment (e.g., an Olympic news break) is between twodifferent ice hockey games, the media guidance application may deletethat segment or mark it for deletion because the segment is not neededto maintain continuity of the ice hockey game.

In some aspects, the media guidance application may perform thefollowing actions for recording portions of a media asset based on auser's criteria. Specifically, the media guidance application mayreceive input from the user including a user selection of the mediaasset and a criterion for retaining portions of the media asset. Forexample, the media guidance application may provide an option to theuser to record the media asset. When the user selects that option, themedia guidance application may generate for display an option to input acriterion for recording portions of the media asset. It should be notedthat the media guidance application may provide an option for the userto input more than one criterion. For example, the media guidanceapplication may generate for display a text area that enables the userto enter one or more terms. The media guidance application may then usethose terms as a criterion or criteria.

The media guidance application may determine whether the terms enteredby the user should be used as one criterion or whether each term shouldbe a criterion. For example, if the media guidance application receives“ice hockey, Canada” as input, the media guidance application maydetermine that both terms constitute one criterion and the user desiresto retain only portions of the media assets that include ice hockeygames where Team Canada is a participant. However, if the media guidanceapplication receives “ice hockey, downhill skiing” then the mediaguidance application may determine that the user desires to retainportions of the media asset that include ice hockey games and downhillskiing events.

In addition or instead of generating for display a text area for userinput, the media guidance application may generate one or more keywordsassociated with the media asset for a user to select. The media guidanceapplication may receive a user selection of one or more keywords andenable the user to choose whether the keywords are to be used as onecriterion or whether the keywords should constitute different criteria.

When the media guidance application starts recording the media asset,the media guidance application may generate keywords for differentsegments of the media asset by executing a content recognitionalgorithm. Specifically, the media guidance application may generate afirst set of keywords for a first segment of the media asset, a secondset of keywords for a second segment of the media asset, and a third setof keywords for a third segment of the media asset by executing acontent recognition algorithm on the first segment, the second segment,and the third segment. In this instance, the first segment within themedia asset precedes the second segment and the second segment precedesthe third segment. To continue with the example above, the mediaguidance application may record a first segment of the Winter Olympicgames and execute a content recognition algorithm against that segment.

Specifically, the media guidance application may use video contentrecognition to determine specific objects in each frame of the segmentand then add to a list of keywords terms associated with each object.For example, if the media guidance application determines through videocontent recognition that a skier is within a frame of the segment, theterm “skiing” may be added to the set of keywords. Additionally oralternatively, if the media guidance application determines that aspecific skier is in the frame, the skier's name may be added to the setof keywords. The same process may be repeated using audio contentrecognition so that any audio keywords are added to the set of keywords.

The media guidance application may generate a set of keywords for thecriterion or criteria entered by the user. Specifically, the mediaguidance application may generate a fourth set of keywords based on thecriterion. This is the set of keywords that may later be compared withsets of keywords generated for each segment. The media guidanceapplication may generate the fourth set of words by, for example,retrieving, from a database, objects related to the terms input by theuser.

For example, if the media guidance application receives user input thatincludes the terms “ice hockey” and “USA,” the media guidanceapplication may search the database for objects related to those twoterms. For example, the term “ice hockey” may be related to objects suchas a “puck,” “hockey stick”, “goalie,” “minor penalty,” etc. Each ofthose objects may have keywords associated with the object.Specifically, the object “hockey stick” may have associated keywordssuch as “right-handed,” “left-handed,” etc. The object “goalie” may haveassociated keywords such as “goalie mask,” “pads,” “net minder,” etc.The media guidance application may add all or some of those keywords tothe fourth set of keywords.

The media guidance application may compare keywords associated withdifferent segments with keywords associated with the criterion input bythe user. Specifically, the media guidance application may compare thefirst set of keywords, the second set of keywords, and the third set ofkeywords with the fourth set of keywords. For example, the mediaguidance application may compare each set of keywords and determine thatfor a first set ten out of twenty-one keywords match. The media guidanceapplication may perform the same or similar comparison for the secondand third sets of keywords.

The media guidance application may determine, based on the comparing,that the first segment and the third segment match the criterion, andthat the second segment does not match the criterion. For example, athreshold value may be provided to the media guidance application todetermine whether a match has occurred. The threshold value may be apercentage of the keywords matching or an absolute number. In theexample above, if ten out of 21 words have matched and the thresholdvalue is 50%, then the media guidance application may determine that nomatch has occurred based on ten out of 21 being less than 50%.

If the media guidance application determines that a specific segmentdoes not match the criterion/criteria, the media guidance applicationmay mark that segment for deletion. Specifically, the media guidanceapplication may, based on determining that the second segment does notmatch the criterion, store a delete indicator for the second segmentthat indicates that the second segment is to be deleted. For example,the media guidance application may store the delete indicator withmetadata associated with the specific segment. Alternatively oradditionally, the media guidance application may maintain a segment mapthat indicates, for each segment, whether the segment is to be retainedor marked for deletion. The media guidance application may mark fordeletion the second segment by adding a delete indicator to the locationin the segment map corresponding to the second segment.

When the media guidance application determines that the first set ofkeywords and the third set of keywords match the criterion/criteria andthe second set of keywords, located between the first and thirdsegments, does not, the media guidance may compare the first and thirdsegments to determine whether those segments are associated with thesame portion of the media asset. Specifically, the media guidanceapplication may compare the first set of keywords to the third set ofkeywords. The comparison may be performed in the same or similar manneras the comparison between the first, second, and third sets of keywordsand the set of keywords associated with the criterion, as describedabove.

The media guidance application may determine whether the two segmentsmatch the same portion of the media asset. Specifically, the mediaguidance application may determine, based on the comparing of the firstset of keywords and the third set of keywords, whether the third segmentmatches the first segment. The media guidance application may performthis step in the same or similar manner as determining that the firstand the third segments match the criterion and the second does not, asdescribed above.

If the media guidance application determines that the first and thirdsegments correspond to the same portion of the media asset, the mediaguidance application may remove the delete indicator associated with thesecond segment. For example, the media guidance application may updatethe segment map to change the delete indicator associated with thesecond segment to an indicator indicating that the second segment is tobe retained. Additionally or alternatively, the media guidanceapplication may remove the delete indicator from the metadata associatedwith the second segment.

For example, the media guidance application may receive user input torecord a broadcast of the Winter Olympics that lasts 12 hours. Withinthat broadcast, sports such as ice hockey, skiing, snowboarding, etc.,may be shown. The media guidance application may receive from the userinput to record the broadcast and specify that “ice hockey” is to berecorded. The media guidance application may start recording the mediaasset and mark all segments for deletion until a first instance of “icehockey” is detected. Specifically, the media guidance application maydetermine that an ice hockey game between Team USA and Team Canada hasstarted or is about to start. If, for example, there is a break inshowing the game that includes a segment with some kind of Olympicupdate, the media guidance application may retain that segment to keepcontinuity of the game. However, if the USA-Canada ice hockey game ends,a new game begins (e.g., Finland vs. Sweden), and there is a segmentincluded between those games, the media guidance application may markthe segment for deletion based on continuity not being needed betweengames, but rather just within the game.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application, based ondetermining that the third segment does not match the first segment, mayadd a new event indicator to the third segment. To continue with theexample above, if the media guidance application determines that thefirst segment is associated with one ice hockey game and the thirdsegment with a different ice hockey game, then the media guidanceapplication may add a new event indicator to the metadata of the thirdsegment. Additionally or alternatively, the media guidance applicationmay add a new event indicator to the segment map, described above.

In some embodiments, it may be desirable to start a new event (e.g., adifferent ice hockey game) without having to view the beginning of thesegment that includes another sport. Thus, the media guidanceapplication may update the new event indicator with a location withinthe third segment where a first match between the third set of keywordsand the fourth set of keywords occurred and delete a portion of thethird segment prior to the location. It should be noted that the mediaguidance application may mark the portion of the third segment fordeletion to be deleted at a later time. For example, a second ice hockeygame may start in the middle of a segment, where the first half of thesegment includes skiing. If the criterion does not match skiing, themedia guidance application may delete or mark for deletion the firsthalf of the segment.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may process themedia asset and delete segments that have been marked for deletion andcreate cues in the media asset in those places that have associated newevents. Specifically, the media guidance application may determine afirst plurality of segments of the media asset that have an associateddelete indicator and a second plurality of segments of the media assetthat have an associated event indicator. The media guidance applicationmay, based on the determining, update the media asset, wherein theupdating comprises deleting the first plurality of segments andinserting a cue to indicate every new event within the media asset. Forexample, when the media asset has been recorded and all the segmentsmarked either for deletion or retention (including new event markers),the media guidance application may concatenate the segments to be keptand delete the segments marked for deletion. The media guidanceapplication may also insert cues into the media asset (e.g., visualindicators and/or audio indicators) to signal new events (e.g., a secondice hockey game).

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may provide to theuser options for use as part of the criterion. Specifically, when themedia guidance application receives the input of the media asset torecord, the media guidance application may receive a selection of amedia listing associated with the media asset. The media guidanceapplication may retrieve, from a database that stores associationsbetween entities, a plurality of entities that are related to the mediaasset and generate for display one or more indications corresponding toone or more entities of the plurality of entities that are most closelyrelated to the media asset. The media guidance application may receivethe user selection of one or more entities to use in the criterion.

For example, the media guidance application may have access to adatabase that includes a set of entities that have been determined to beassociated with the media asset. Those entities may be people, places,actors, characters, sports, videos, songs, etc. The media guidanceapplication may generate for display indications for those entities tobe selected by the user. Specifically, if the media asset is an Olympicbroadcast, the media guidance application may generate for displayathletes' names participating in the Olympic events, places where theevents are taking place, names of sports that will be broadcast, etc.

In some embodiments, the first segment, the second segment, and thethird segment are contiguous. For example, the media guidanceapplication may split a portion (e.g., the first 15 minutes of anOlympic broadcast) of the media asset into three segments (five minuteseach segment). Those segments are contiguous. In some embodiments, eachsegment may be a video frame or a specific number of video frames andassociated audio.

In some embodiments, when generating the fourth set of keywords based onthe criterion, the media guidance application may perform the followingactions. The media guidance application may convert the criterion intotextual data and parse the textual data into a plurality of terms. Themedia guidance application may retrieve, from a database that includesassociations between terms and keywords, keywords associated with eachterm of the plurality of terms and add, to the fourth set of keywords,the keywords associated with each term of the plurality of terms.

For example, if the criterion is provided in the form of a userselecting items on the screen, the media guidance application mayconvert those selections into textual data and split the data intoterms. Specifically, if the criterion includes a user selection of “icehockey” and “Canada,” the media guidance application may retrieve fromthe database associated terms (e.g., stick, puck, Team Canada, etc.) Themedia guidance application may then add those keywords to the fourth setof keywords.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application, when determining,based on the comparing, that the first segment and the third segmentmatch the criterion and that the second segment does not match thecriterion, may perform the following. The media guidance application maydetermine that a number of keywords in the first set of keywords thatmatches keywords in the fourth set of keywords meets a threshold valueand determine that a number of keywords in the second set of keywordsthat matches keywords in the fourth set of keywords does not meet thethreshold value. The media guidance application may make thesedeterminations, for example, based on a percentage of keywords matchedor a specific number of keywords that matched.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows an illustrative embodiment of a data structure that may beused to store data associated with specific segments and an updatedstate of that data structure, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 2 shows an illustrative embodiment of a display screen that may beused to provide media guidance application listings and other mediaguidance information, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 3 shows another illustrative embodiment of a display screen thatmay be used to provide media guidance application listings, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an illustrative device in accordance withsome embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an illustrative media system, in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 6 depicts an illustrative process involved in recording portions ofa media asset based on a user's criterion, in accordance with someembodiments of this disclosure;

FIG. 7 depicts an illustrative process involved in generating a set ofkeywords, in accordance with some embodiments of this disclosure;

FIG. 8 depicts an illustrative process involved in determining whether asegment matches a criterion entered by a user, in accordance with someembodiments of this disclosure; and

FIG. 9 depicts an illustrative process involved in removing a deleteindicator from metadata associated with a segment, in accordance withsome embodiments of this disclosure.

DESCRIPTION

Systems and methods are provided herein to record portions of mediaassets. Specifically, a media guidance application may be configured toreceive user input of a media asset to record, together with a criterionfor recording portions of that media asset. The criterion in this casecorresponds to content within the media asset that the user desires toconsume. However, it would be useful to retain portions of the mediaasset that do not match the criterion, but are between two portions thatdo match the criterion. This would happen when the two portions are partof the same presentation.

For example, a user may like tennis and want to record a broadcast ofthe “U.S. Open,” which may last for twelve hours. However, the user mayonly want to watch matches with specific athletes (e.g., U.S. Players).Thus, the media guidance application may receive as input a selection ofthe U.S. Open broadcast and a criterion “U.S. Players.”

When the media guidance starts recording the broadcast, the mediaguidance application may split the media asset into segments (e.g., fiveminutes each). The media guidance application may execute a contentrecognition algorithm against each segment to determine whether thesegment matches “U.S. Players” (i.e., one of the players participatingin the tennis match is a U.S. Player). As the match progresses, eachsegment is stored as a continuous presentation. However, the tennismatch may get interrupted by, for example, a news break. The segmentprior to the newsbreak would be labeled as the first segment and thenewsbreak as the second segment.

The news break would not match a “U.S. Player.” Therefore, the newsbreak would be marked for deletion. However, the news break should beretained in order to keep continuity of the presentation (i.e., thetennis match in progress). Thus, when the next segment (the thirdsegment) is determined to match the criterion, the system may determinewhether this next segment is part of the same tennis match (i.e.,matches the same U.S. tennis player). If so, this current segment is notmarked for deletion and the prior segment is unmarked for deletion inorder to maintain continuity of the tennis match.

FIG. 1 illustrates how metadata associated with each of a first segment,a second segment, and a third segment may change. The first, second, andthird segments may corresponds to the first, second and third segmentsdescribed above (i.e., the first segment is of a tennis match thatfeatures a U.S. player, the second segment is the news break, and thethird segment represents the continuation of the match Metadata excerpt100 illustrates metadata structures 102, 104 and 106 associated with afirst segment, the second segment, and the third segment, respectively.The metadata structure associated with each segment may include asegment identifier 110 that uniquely identifies the segment within themedia asset. Structure 104 that is associated with the second segmentmay include the tag for the delete indicator. This would be the deleteindicator added to the metadata as a result of the media guidanceapplication determining that the news break does not match the criterionof “U.S. Player.”

Metadata excerpt 150 illustrates metadata structures 152, 154, and 156corresponding to the first segment, the second segment and the thirdsegment, respectively. Excerpt 150 represents metadata structure afterprocess 600 has been executed and the media guidance application hasdetermined that the second segment is to be retained because it isbetween two segments of the same presentation (e.g., the same tennismatch). Each structure includes identifier 158 that uniquely identifieseach segment within the media asset. It should be noted that the deleteindicator has been removed as a result of executing process 900 of FIG.9). It should also be noted that segment metadata may include suchinformation as the start time of the segment within the media asset, theend time of the segment within the media asset, keywords associated withthe media asset, or a pointer to a file containing the keywords.

The amount of content available to users in any given content deliverysystem can be substantial. Consequently, many users desire a form ofmedia guidance through an interface that allows users to efficientlynavigate content selections and easily identify content that they maydesire. An application that provides such guidance is referred to hereinas an interactive media guidance application or, sometimes, a mediaguidance application or a guidance application.

Interactive media guidance applications may take various forms dependingon the content for which they provide guidance. One typical type ofmedia guidance application is an interactive television program guide.Interactive television program guides (sometimes referred to aselectronic program guides) are well-known guidance applications that,among other things, allow users to navigate among and locate many typesof content or media assets. Interactive media guidance applications maygenerate graphical user interface screens that enable a user to navigateamong, locate and select content. As referred to herein, the terms“media asset” and “content” should be understood to mean anelectronically consumable user asset, such as television programming, aswell as pay-per-view programs, on-demand programs (as in video-on-demand(VOD) systems), Internet content (e.g., streaming content, downloadablecontent, Webcasts, etc.), video clips, audio, content information,pictures, rotating images, documents, playlists, websites, articles,books, electronic books, blogs, chat sessions, social media,applications, games, and/or any other media or multimedia and/orcombination of the same. Guidance applications also allow users tonavigate among and locate content. As referred to herein, the term“multimedia” should be understood to mean content that utilizes at leasttwo different content forms described above, for example, text, audio,images, video, or interactivity content forms. Content may be recorded,played, displayed or accessed by user equipment devices, but can also bepart of a live performance.

The media guidance application and/or any instructions for performingany of the embodiments discussed herein may be encoded on computerreadable media. Computer readable media includes any media capable ofstoring data. The computer readable media may be transitory, including,but not limited to, propagating electrical or electromagnetic signals,or may be non-transitory including, but not limited to, volatile andnon-volatile computer memory or storage devices such as a hard disk,floppy disk, USB drive, DVD, CD, media cards, register memory, processorcaches, Random Access Memory (“RAM”), etc.

With the advent of the Internet, mobile computing, and high-speedwireless networks, users are accessing media on user equipment deviceson which they traditionally did not. As referred to herein, the phrase“user equipment device,” “user equipment,” “user device,” “electronicdevice,” “electronic equipment,” “media equipment device,” or “mediadevice” should be understood to mean any device for accessing thecontent described above, such as a television, a Smart TV, a set-topbox, an integrated receiver decoder (IRD) for handling satellitetelevision, a digital storage device, a digital media receiver (DMR), adigital media adapter (DMA), a streaming media device, a DVD player, aDVD recorder, a connected DVD, a local media server, a BLU-RAY player, aBLU-RAY recorder, a personal computer (PC), a laptop computer, a tabletcomputer, a WebTV box, a personal computer television (PC/TV), a PCmedia server, a PC media center, a hand-held computer, a stationarytelephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, aportable video player, a portable music player, a portable gamingmachine, a smart phone, or any other television equipment, computingequipment, or wireless device, and/or combination of the same. In someembodiments, the user equipment device may have a front facing screenand a rear facing screen, multiple front screens, or multiple angledscreens. In some embodiments, the user equipment device may have a frontfacing camera and/or a rear facing camera. On these user equipmentdevices, users may be able to navigate among and locate the same contentavailable through a television. Consequently, media guidance may beavailable on these devices, as well. The guidance provided may be forcontent available only through a television, for content available onlythrough one or more of other types of user equipment devices, or forcontent available both through a television and one or more of the othertypes of user equipment devices. The media guidance applications may beprovided as on-line applications (i.e., provided on a web-site), or asstand-alone applications or clients on user equipment devices. Variousdevices and platforms that may implement media guidance applications aredescribed in more detail below.

One of the functions of the media guidance application is to providemedia guidance data to users. As referred to herein, the phrase “mediaguidance data” or “guidance data” should be understood to mean any datarelated to content or data used in operating the guidance application.For example, the guidance data may include program information, guidanceapplication settings, user preferences, user profile information, medialistings, media-related information (e.g., broadcast times, broadcastchannels, titles, descriptions, ratings information (e.g., parentalcontrol ratings, critic's ratings, etc.), genre or category information,actor information, logo data for broadcasters' or providers' logos,etc.), media format (e.g., standard definition, high definition, 3D,etc.), on-demand information, blogs, websites, and any other type ofguidance data that is helpful for a user to navigate among and locatedesired content selections.

FIGS. 2-3 show illustrative display screens that may be used to providemedia guidance data. The display screens shown in FIGS. 2-3 may beimplemented on any suitable user equipment device or platform. While thedisplays of FIGS. 2-3 are illustrated as full screen displays, they mayalso be fully or partially overlaid over content being displayed. A usermay indicate a desire to access content information by selecting aselectable option provided in a display screen (e.g., a menu option, alistings option, an icon, a hyperlink, etc.) or pressing a dedicatedbutton (e.g., a GUIDE button) on a remote control or other user inputinterface or device. In response to the user's indication, the mediaguidance application may provide a display screen with media guidancedata organized in one of several ways, such as by time and channel in agrid, by time, by channel, by source, by content type, by category(e.g., movies, sports, news, children, or other categories ofprogramming), or other predefined, user-defined, or other organizationcriteria.

FIG. 2 shows illustrative grid of a program listings display 200arranged by time and channel that also enables access to different typesof content in a single display. Display 200 may include grid 202 with:(1) a column of channel/content type identifiers 204, where eachchannel/content type identifier (which is a cell in the column)identifies a different channel or content type available; and (2) a rowof time identifiers 206, where each time identifier (which is a cell inthe row) identifies a time block of programming. Grid 202 also includescells of program listings, such as program listing 208, where eachlisting provides the title of the program provided on the listing'sassociated channel and time. With a user input device, a user can selectprogram listings by moving highlight region 210. Information relating tothe program listing selected by highlight region 210 may be provided inprogram information region 212. Region 212 may include, for example, theprogram title, the program description, the time the program is provided(if applicable), the channel the program is on (if applicable), theprogram's rating, and other desired information.

In addition to providing access to linear programming (e.g., contentthat is scheduled to be transmitted to a plurality of user equipmentdevices at a predetermined time and is provided according to aschedule), the media guidance application also provides access tonon-linear programming (e.g., content accessible to a user equipmentdevice at any time and is not provided according to a schedule).Non-linear programming may include content from different contentsources including on-demand content (e.g., VOD), Internet content (e.g.,streaming media, downloadable media, etc.), locally stored content(e.g., content stored on any user equipment device described above orother storage device), or other time-independent content. On-demandcontent may include movies or any other content provided by a particularcontent provider (e.g., HBO On Demand providing “The Sopranos” and “CurbYour Enthusiasm”). HBO ON DEMAND is a service mark owned by Time WarnerCompany L.P. et al. and THE SOPRANOS and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM aretrademarks owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. Internet content mayinclude web events, such as a chat session or Webcast, or contentavailable on-demand as streaming content or downloadable content throughan Internet web site or other Internet access (e.g. FTP).

Grid 202 may provide media guidance data for non-linear programmingincluding on-demand listing 214, recorded content listing 216, andInternet content listing 218. A display combining media guidance datafor content from different types of content sources is sometimesreferred to as a “mixed-media” display. Various permutations of thetypes of media guidance data that may be displayed that are differentthan display 200 may be based on user selection or guidance applicationdefinition (e.g., a display of only recorded and broadcast listings,only on-demand and broadcast listings, etc.). As illustrated, listings214, 216, and 218 are shown as spanning the entire time block displayedin grid 202 to indicate that selection of these listings may provideaccess to a display dedicated to on-demand listings, recorded listings,or Internet listings, respectively. In some embodiments, listings forthese content types may be included directly in grid 202. Additionalmedia guidance data may be displayed in response to the user selectingone of the navigational icons 220. (Pressing an arrow key on a userinput device may affect the display in a similar manner as selectingnavigational icons 220.)

Display 200 may also include video region 222, and options region 226.Video region 222 may allow the user to view and/or preview programs thatare currently available, will be available, or were available to theuser. The content of video region 222 may correspond to, or beindependent from, one of the listings displayed in grid 202. Griddisplays including a video region are sometimes referred to aspicture-in-guide (PIG) displays. PIG displays and their functionalitiesare described in greater detail in Satterfield et al. U.S. Pat. No.6,564,378, issued May 13, 2003 and Yuen et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,239,794,issued May 29, 2001, which are hereby incorporated by reference hereinin their entireties. PIG displays may be included in other mediaguidance application display screens of the embodiments describedherein.

Options region 226 may allow the user to access different types ofcontent, media guidance application displays, and/or media guidanceapplication features. Options region 226 may be part of display 200 (andother display screens described herein), or may be invoked by a user byselecting an on-screen option or pressing a dedicated or assignablebutton on a user input device. The selectable options within optionsregion 226 may concern features related to program listings in grid 202or may include options available from a main menu display. Featuresrelated to program listings may include searching for other air times orways of receiving a program, recording a program, enabling seriesrecording of a program, setting program and/or channel as a favorite,purchasing a program, or other features. Options available from a mainmenu display may include search options, VOD options, parental controloptions, Internet options, cloud-based options, device synchronizationoptions, second screen device options, options to access various typesof media guidance data displays, options to subscribe to a premiumservice, options to edit a user's profile, options to access a browseoverlay, or other options.

The media guidance application may be personalized based on a user'spreferences. A personalized media guidance application allows a user tocustomize displays and features to create a personalized “experience”with the media guidance application. This personalized experience may becreated by allowing a user to input these customizations and/or by themedia guidance application monitoring user activity to determine varioususer preferences. Users may access their personalized guidanceapplication by logging in or otherwise identifying themselves to theguidance application. Customization of the media guidance applicationmay be made in accordance with a user profile. The customizations mayinclude varying presentation schemes (e.g., color scheme of displays,font size of text, etc.), aspects of content listings displayed (e.g.,only HDTV or only 3D programming, user-specified broadcast channelsbased on favorite channel selections, re-ordering the display ofchannels, recommended content, etc.), desired recording features (e.g.,recording or series recordings for particular users, recording quality,etc.), parental control settings, customized presentation of Internetcontent (e.g., presentation of social media content, e-mail,electronically delivered articles, etc.) and other desiredcustomizations.

The media guidance application may allow a user to provide user profileinformation or may automatically compile user profile information. Themedia guidance application may, for example, monitor the content theuser accesses and/or other interactions the user may have with theguidance application. Additionally, the media guidance application mayobtain all or part of other user profiles that are related to aparticular user (e.g., from other web sites on the Internet the useraccesses, such as www.allrovi.com, from other media guidanceapplications the user accesses, from other interactive applications theuser accesses, from another user equipment device of the user, etc.),and/or obtain information about the user from other sources that themedia guidance application may access. As a result, a user can beprovided with a unified guidance application experience across theuser's different user equipment devices. This type of user experience isdescribed in greater detail below in connection with FIG. 5. Additionalpersonalized media guidance application features are described ingreater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No.2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005, Boyer et al., U.S. Pat. No.7,165,098, issued Jan. 16, 2007, and Ellis et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2002/0174430, filed Feb. 21, 2002, which arehereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

Another display arrangement for providing media guidance is shown inFIG. 3. Video mosaic display 300 includes selectable options 302 forcontent information organized based on content type, genre, and/or otherorganization criteria. In display 300, television listings option 304 isselected, thus providing listings 306, 308, 310, and 312 as broadcastprogram listings. In display 300 the listings may provide graphicalimages including cover art, still images from the content, video clippreviews, live video from the content, or other types of content thatindicate to a user the content being described by the media guidancedata in the listing. Each of the graphical listings may also beaccompanied by text to provide further information about the contentassociated with the listing. For example, listing 308 may include morethan one portion, including media portion 314 and text portion 316.Media portion 314 and/or text portion 316 may be selectable to viewcontent in full-screen or to view information related to the contentdisplayed in media portion 314 (e.g., to view listings for the channelthat the video is displayed on).

The listings in display 300 are of different sizes (i.e., listing 306 islarger than listings 308, 310, and 312), but if desired, all thelistings may be the same size. Listings may be of different sizes orgraphically accentuated to indicate degrees of interest to the user orto emphasize certain content, as desired by the content provider orbased on user preferences. Various systems and methods for graphicallyaccentuating content listings are discussed in, for example, Yates, U.S.Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0153885, filed Nov. 12, 2009,which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Users may access content and the media guidance application (and itsdisplay screens described above and below) from one or more of theiruser equipment devices. FIG. 4 shows a generalized embodiment ofillustrative user equipment device 400. More specific implementations ofuser equipment devices are discussed below in connection with FIG. 5.User equipment device 400 may receive content and data via input/output(hereinafter “I/O”) path 402. I/O path 402 may provide content (e.g.,broadcast programming, on-demand programming, Internet content, contentavailable over a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN),and/or other content) and data to control circuitry 404, which includesprocessing circuitry 406 and storage 408. Control circuitry 404 may beused to send and receive commands, requests, and other suitable datausing I/O path 402. I/O path 402 may connect control circuitry 404 (andspecifically processing circuitry 406) to one or more communicationspaths (described below). I/O functions may be provided by one or more ofthese communications paths, but are shown as a single path in FIG. 4 toavoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Control circuitry 404 may be based on any suitable processing circuitrysuch as processing circuitry 406. As referred to herein, processingcircuitry should be understood to mean circuitry based on one or moremicroprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors,programmable logic devices, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs),application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc., and may includea multi-core processor (e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or anysuitable number of cores) or supercomputer. In some embodiments,processing circuitry may be distributed across multiple separateprocessors or processing units, for example, multiple of the same typeof processing units (e.g., two Intel Core i7 processors) or multipledifferent processors (e.g., an Intel Core i5 processor and an Intel Corei7 processor). In some embodiments, control circuitry 404 executesinstructions for a media guidance application stored in memory (i.e.,storage 408). Specifically, control circuitry 404 may be instructed bythe media guidance application to perform the functions discussed aboveand below. For example, the media guidance application may provideinstructions to control circuitry 404 to generate the media guidancedisplays. In some implementations, any action performed by controlcircuitry 404 may be based on instructions received from the mediaguidance application.

In client-server based embodiments, control circuitry 404 may includecommunications circuitry suitable for communicating with a guidanceapplication server or other networks or servers. The instructions forcarrying out the above mentioned functionality may be stored on theguidance application server. Communications circuitry may include acable modem, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) modem, adigital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a telephone modem, Ethernet card,or a wireless modem for communications with other equipment, or anyother suitable communications circuitry. Such communications may involvethe Internet or any other suitable communications networks or paths(which is described in more detail in connection with FIG. 5). Inaddition, communications circuitry may include circuitry that enablespeer-to-peer communication of user equipment devices, or communicationof user equipment devices in locations remote from each other (describedin more detail below).

Memory may be an electronic storage device provided as storage 408 thatis part of control circuitry 404. As referred to herein, the phrase“electronic storage device” or “storage device” should be understood tomean any device for storing electronic data, computer software, orfirmware, such as random-access memory, read-only memory, hard drives,optical drives, digital video disc (DVD) recorders, compact disc (CD)recorders, BLU-RAY disc (BD) recorders, BLU-RAY 3D disc recorders,digital video recorders (DVR, sometimes called a personal videorecorder, or PVR), solid state devices, quantum storage devices, gamingconsoles, gaming media, or any other suitable fixed or removable storagedevices, and/or any combination of the same. Storage 408 may be used tostore various types of content described herein as well as mediaguidance data described above. Nonvolatile memory may also be used(e.g., to launch a boot-up routine and other instructions). Cloud-basedstorage, described in relation to FIG. 5, may be used to supplementstorage 408 or instead of storage 408.

Control circuitry 404 may include video generating circuitry and tuningcircuitry, such as one or more analog tuners, one or more MPEG-2decoders or other digital decoding circuitry, high-definition tuners, orany other suitable tuning or video circuits or combinations of suchcircuits. Encoding circuitry (e.g., for converting over-the-air, analog,or digital signals to MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided.Control circuitry 404 may also include scaler circuitry for upconvertingand downconverting content into the preferred output format of the userequipment 400. Circuitry 404 may also include digital-to-analogconverter circuitry and analog-to-digital converter circuitry forconverting between digital and analog signals. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may be used by the user equipment device to receive and todisplay, to play, or to record content. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may also be used to receive guidance data. The circuitrydescribed herein, including for example, the tuning, video generating,encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaler, and analog/digitalcircuitry, may be implemented using software running on one or moregeneral purpose or specialized processors. Multiple tuners may beprovided to handle simultaneous tuning functions (e.g., watch and recordfunctions, picture-in-picture (PIP) functions, multiple-tuner recording,etc.). If storage 408 is provided as a separate device from userequipment 400, the tuning and encoding circuitry (including multipletuners) may be associated with storage 408.

A user may send instructions to control circuitry 404 using user inputinterface 410. User input interface 410 may be any suitable userinterface, such as a remote control, mouse, trackball, keypad, keyboard,touch screen, touchpad, stylus input, joystick, voice recognitioninterface, or other user input interfaces. Display 412 may be providedas a stand-alone device or integrated with other elements of userequipment device 400. For example, display 412 may be a touchscreen ortouch-sensitive display. In such circumstances, user input interface 410may be integrated with or combined with display 412. Display 412 may beone or more of a monitor, a television, a liquid crystal display (LCD)for a mobile device, amorphous silicon display, low temperature polysilicon display, electronic ink display, electrophoretic display, activematrix display, electro-wetting display, electrofluidic display, cathoderay tube display, light-emitting diode display, electroluminescentdisplay, plasma display panel, high-performance addressing display,thin-film transistor display, organic light-emitting diode display,surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED), laser television,carbon nanotubes, quantum dot display, interferometric modulatordisplay, or any other suitable equipment for displaying visual images.In some embodiments, display 412 may be HDTV-capable. In someembodiments, display 412 may be a 3D display, and the interactive mediaguidance application and any suitable content may be displayed in 3D. Avideo card or graphics card may generate the output to the display 412.The video card may offer various functions such as accelerated renderingof 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or theability to connect multiple monitors. The video card may be anyprocessing circuitry described above in relation to control circuitry404. The video card may be integrated with the control circuitry 404.Speakers 414 may be provided as integrated with other elements of userequipment device 400 or may be stand-alone units. The audio component ofvideos and other content displayed on display 412 may be played throughspeakers 414. In some embodiments, the audio may be distributed to areceiver (not shown), which processes and outputs the audio via speakers414.

The guidance application may be implemented using any suitablearchitecture. For example, it may be a stand-alone applicationwholly-implemented on user equipment device 400. In such an approach,instructions of the application are stored locally (e.g., in storage408), and data for use by the application is downloaded on a periodicbasis (e.g., from an out-of-band feed, from an Internet resource, orusing another suitable approach). Control circuitry 404 may retrieveinstructions of the application from storage 408 and process theinstructions to generate any of the displays discussed herein. Based onthe processed instructions, control circuitry 404 may determine whataction to perform when input is received from input interface 410. Forexample, movement of a cursor on a display up/down may be indicated bythe processed instructions when input interface 410 indicates that anup/down button was selected.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is a client-serverbased application. Data for use by a thick or thin client implemented onuser equipment device 400 is retrieved on-demand by issuing requests toa server remote to the user equipment device 400. In one example of aclient-server based guidance application, control circuitry 404 runs aweb browser that interprets web pages provided by a remote server. Forexample, the remote server may store the instructions for theapplication in a storage device. The remote server may process thestored instructions using circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 404) andgenerate the displays discussed above and below. The client device mayreceive the displays generated by the remote server and may display thecontent of the displays locally on equipment device 400. This way, theprocessing of the instructions is performed remotely by the server whilethe resulting displays are provided locally on equipment device 400.Equipment device 400 may receive inputs from the user via inputinterface 410 and transmit those inputs to the remote server forprocessing and generating the corresponding displays. For example,equipment device 400 may transmit a communication to the remote serverindicating that an up/down button was selected via input interface 410.The remote server may process instructions in accordance with that inputand generate a display of the application corresponding to the input(e.g., a display that moves a cursor up/down). The generated display isthen transmitted to equipment device 400 for presentation to the user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is downloaded andinterpreted or otherwise run by an interpreter or virtual machine (runby control circuitry 404). In some embodiments, the guidance applicationmay be encoded in the ETV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF), received bycontrol circuitry 404 as part of a suitable feed, and interpreted by auser agent running on control circuitry 404. For example, the guidanceapplication may be an EBIF application. In some embodiments, theguidance application may be defined by a series of JAVA-based files thatare received and run by a local virtual machine or other suitablemiddleware executed by control circuitry 404. In some of suchembodiments (e.g., those employing MPEG-2 or other digital mediaencoding schemes), the guidance application may be, for example, encodedand transmitted in an MPEG-2 object carousel with the MPEG audio andvideo packets of a program.

User equipment device 400 of FIG. 4 can be implemented in system 500 ofFIG. 5 as user television equipment 502, user computer equipment 504,wireless user communications device 506, or any other type of userequipment suitable for accessing content, such as a non-portable gamingmachine. For simplicity, these devices may be referred to hereincollectively as user equipment or user equipment devices, and may besubstantially similar to user equipment devices described above. Userequipment devices, on which a media guidance application may beimplemented, may function as a standalone device or may be part of anetwork of devices. Various network configurations of devices may beimplemented and are discussed in more detail below.

A user equipment device utilizing at least some of the system featuresdescribed above in connection with FIG. 4 may not be classified solelyas user television equipment 502, user computer equipment 504, or awireless user communications device 506. For example, user televisionequipment 502 may, like some user computer equipment 504, beInternet-enabled allowing for access to Internet content, while usercomputer equipment 504 may, like some television equipment 502, includea tuner allowing for access to television programming. The mediaguidance application may have the same layout on various different typesof user equipment or may be tailored to the display capabilities of theuser equipment. For example, on user computer equipment 504, theguidance application may be provided as a web site accessed by a webbrowser. In another example, the guidance application may be scaled downfor wireless user communications devices 506.

In system 500, there is typically more than one of each type of userequipment device but only one of each is shown in FIG. 5 to avoidovercomplicating the drawing. In addition, each user may utilize morethan one type of user equipment device and also more than one of eachtype of user equipment device.

In some embodiments, a user equipment device (e.g., user televisionequipment 502, user computer equipment 504, wireless user communicationsdevice 506) may be referred to as a “second screen device.” For example,a second screen device may supplement content presented on a first userequipment device. The content presented on the second screen device maybe any suitable content that supplements the content presented on thefirst device. In some embodiments, the second screen device provides aninterface for adjusting settings and display preferences of the firstdevice. In some embodiments, the second screen device is configured forinteracting with other second screen devices or for interacting with asocial network. The second screen device can be located in the same roomas the first device, a different room from the first device but in thesame house or building, or in a different building from the firstdevice.

The user may also set various settings to maintain consistent mediaguidance application settings across in-home devices and remote devices.Settings include those described herein, as well as channel and programfavorites, programming preferences that the guidance applicationutilizes to make programming recommendations, display preferences, andother desirable guidance settings. For example, if a user sets a channelas a favorite on, for example, the web site www.allrovi.com on theirpersonal computer at their office, the same channel would appear as afavorite on the user's in-home devices (e.g., user television equipmentand user computer equipment) as well as the user's mobile devices, ifdesired. Therefore, changes made on one user equipment device can changethe guidance experience on another user equipment device, regardless ofwhether they are the same or a different type of user equipment device.In addition, the changes made may be based on settings input by a user,as well as user activity monitored by the guidance application.

The user equipment devices may be coupled to communications network 514.Namely, user television equipment 502, user computer equipment 504, andwireless user communications device 506 are coupled to communicationsnetwork 514 via communications paths 508, 510, and 512, respectively.Communications network 514 may be one or more networks including theInternet, a mobile phone network, mobile voice or data network (e.g., a4G or LTE network), cable network, public switched telephone network, orother types of communications network or combinations of communicationsnetworks. Paths 508, 510, and 512 may separately or together include oneor more communications paths, such as, a satellite path, a fiber-opticpath, a cable path, a path that supports Internet communications (e.g.,IPTV), free-space connections (e.g., for broadcast or other wirelesssignals), or any other suitable wired or wireless communications path orcombination of such paths. Path 512 is drawn with dotted lines toindicate that in the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 5 it is awireless path and paths 508 and 510 are drawn as solid lines to indicatethey are wired paths (although these paths may be wireless paths, ifdesired). Communications with the user equipment devices may be providedby one or more of these communications paths, but are shown as a singlepath in FIG. 5 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Although communications paths are not drawn between user equipmentdevices, these devices may communicate directly with each other viacommunication paths, such as those described above in connection withpaths 508, 510, and 512, as well as other short-range point-to-pointcommunication paths, such as USB cables, IEEE 1394 cables, wirelesspaths (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, IEEE 802-11x, etc.), or othershort-range communication via wired or wireless paths. BLUETOOTH is acertification mark owned by Bluetooth SIG, INC. The user equipmentdevices may also communicate with each other directly through anindirect path via communications network 514.

System 500 includes content source 516 and media guidance data source518 coupled to communications network 514 via communication paths 520and 522, respectively. Paths 520 and 522 may include any of thecommunication paths described above in connection with paths 508, 510,and 512. Communications with the content source 516 and media guidancedata source 518 may be exchanged over one or more communications paths,but are shown as a single path in FIG. 5 to avoid overcomplicating thedrawing. In addition, there may be more than one of each of contentsource 516 and media guidance data source 518, but only one of each isshown in FIG. 5 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. (The differenttypes of each of these sources are discussed below.) If desired, contentsource 516 and media guidance data source 518 may be integrated as onesource device. Although communications between sources 516 and 518 withuser equipment devices 502, 504, and 506 are shown as throughcommunications network 514, in some embodiments, sources 516 and 518 maycommunicate directly with user equipment devices 502, 504, and 506 viacommunication paths (not shown) such as those described above inconnection with paths 508, 510, and 512.

Content source 516 may include one or more types of content distributionequipment including a television distribution facility, cable systemheadend, satellite distribution facility, programming sources (e.g.,television broadcasters, such as NBC, ABC, HBO, etc.), intermediatedistribution facilities and/or servers, Internet providers, on-demandmedia servers, and other content providers. NBC is a trademark owned bythe National Broadcasting Company, Inc., ABC is a trademark owned by theAmerican Broadcasting Company, Inc., and HBO is a trademark owned by theHome Box Office, Inc. Content source 516 may be the originator ofcontent (e.g., a television broadcaster, a Webcast provider, etc.) ormay not be the originator of content (e.g., an on-demand contentprovider, an Internet provider of content of broadcast programs fordownloading, etc.). Content source 516 may include cable sources,satellite providers, on-demand providers, Internet providers,over-the-top content providers, or other providers of content. Contentsource 516 may also include a remote media server used to storedifferent types of content (including video content selected by a user),in a location remote from any of the user equipment devices. Systems andmethods for remote storage of content, and providing remotely storedcontent to user equipment are discussed in greater detail in connectionwith Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,761,892, issued Jul. 20, 2010, whichis hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Media guidance data source 518 may provide media guidance data, such asthe media guidance data described above. Media guidance data may beprovided to the user equipment devices using any suitable approach. Insome embodiments, the guidance application may be a stand-aloneinteractive television program guide that receives program guide datavia a data feed (e.g., a continuous feed or trickle feed). Programschedule data and other guidance data may be provided to the userequipment on a television channel sideband, using an in-band digitalsignal, using an out-of-band digital signal, or by any other suitabledata transmission technique. Program schedule data and other mediaguidance data may be provided to user equipment on multiple analog ordigital television channels.

In some embodiments, guidance data from media guidance data source 518may be provided to users' equipment using a client-server approach. Forexample, a user equipment device may pull media guidance data from aserver, or a server may push media guidance data to a user equipmentdevice. In some embodiments, a guidance application client residing onthe user's equipment may initiate sessions with source 518 to obtainguidance data when needed, e.g., when the guidance data is out of dateor when the user equipment device receives a request from the user toreceive data. Media guidance may be provided to the user equipment withany suitable frequency (e.g., continuously, daily, a user-specifiedperiod of time, a system-specified period of time, in response to arequest from user equipment, etc.). Media guidance data source 518 mayprovide user equipment devices 502, 504, and 506 the media guidanceapplication itself or software updates for the media guidanceapplication.

In some embodiments, the media guidance data may include viewer data.For example, the viewer data may include current and/or historical useractivity information (e.g., what content the user typically watches,what times of day the user watches content, whether the user interactswith a social network, at what times the user interacts with a socialnetwork to post information, what types of content the user typicallywatches (e.g., pay TV or free TV), mood, brain activity information,etc.). The media guidance data may also include subscription data. Forexample, the subscription data may identify to which sources or servicesa given user subscribes and/or to which sources or services the givenuser has previously subscribed but later terminated access (e.g.,whether the user subscribes to premium channels, whether the user hasadded a premium level of services, whether the user has increasedInternet speed). In some embodiments, the viewer data and/or thesubscription data may identify patterns of a given user for a period ofmore than one year. The media guidance data may include a model (e.g., asurvivor model) used for generating a score that indicates a likelihooda given user will terminate access to a service/source. For example, themedia guidance application may process the viewer data with thesubscription data using the model to generate a value or score thatindicates a likelihood of whether the given user will terminate accessto a particular service or source. In particular, a higher score mayindicate a higher level of confidence that the user will terminateaccess to a particular service or source. Based on the score, the mediaguidance application may generate promotions that entice the user tokeep the particular service or source indicated by the score as one towhich the user will likely terminate access.

Media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-aloneapplications implemented on user equipment devices. For example, themedia guidance application may be implemented as software or a set ofexecutable instructions which may be stored in storage 408, and executedby control circuitry 404 of a user equipment device 400. In someembodiments, media guidance applications may be client-serverapplications where only a client application resides on the userequipment device, and server application resides on a remote server. Forexample, media guidance applications may be implemented partially as aclient application on control circuitry 404 of user equipment device 400and partially on a remote server as a server application (e.g., mediaguidance data source 518) running on control circuitry of the remoteserver. When executed by control circuitry of the remote server (such asmedia guidance data source 518), the media guidance application mayinstruct the control circuitry to generate the guidance applicationdisplays and transmit the generated displays to the user equipmentdevices. The server application may instruct the control circuitry ofthe media guidance data source 518 to transmit data for storage on theuser equipment. The client application may instruct control circuitry ofthe receiving user equipment to generate the guidance applicationdisplays.

Content and/or media guidance data delivered to user equipment devices502, 504, and 506 may be over-the-top (OTT) content. OTT contentdelivery allows Internet-enabled user devices, including any userequipment device described above, to receive content that is transferredover the Internet, including any content described above, in addition tocontent received over cable or satellite connections. OTT content isdelivered via an Internet connection provided by an Internet serviceprovider (ISP), but a third party distributes the content. The ISP maynot be responsible for the viewing abilities, copyrights, orredistribution of the content, and may only transfer IP packets providedby the OTT content provider. Examples of OTT content providers includeYOUTUBE, NETFLIX, and HULU, which provide audio and video via IPpackets. Youtube is a trademark owned by Google Inc., Netflix is atrademark owned by Netflix Inc., and Hulu is a trademark owned by Hulu,LLC. OTT content providers may additionally or alternatively providemedia guidance data described above. In addition to content and/or mediaguidance data, providers of OTT content can distribute media guidanceapplications (e.g., web-based applications or cloud-based applications),or the content can be displayed by media guidance applications stored onthe user equipment device.

Media guidance system 500 is intended to illustrate a number ofapproaches, or network configurations, by which user equipment devicesand sources of content and guidance data may communicate with each otherfor the purpose of accessing content and providing media guidance. Theembodiments described herein may be applied in any one or a subset ofthese approaches, or in a system employing other approaches fordelivering content and providing media guidance. The following fourapproaches provide specific illustrations of the generalized example ofFIG. 5.

In one approach, user equipment devices may communicate with each otherwithin a home network. User equipment devices can communicate with eachother directly via short-range point-to-point communication schemesdescribed above, via indirect paths through a hub or other similardevice provided on a home network, or via communications network 514.Each of the multiple individuals in a single home may operate differentuser equipment devices on the home network. As a result, it may bedesirable for various media guidance information or settings to becommunicated between the different user equipment devices. For example,it may be desirable for users to maintain consistent media guidanceapplication settings on different user equipment devices within a homenetwork, as described in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. PatentPublication No. 2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005. Different types ofuser equipment devices in a home network may also communicate with eachother to transmit content. For example, a user may transmit content fromuser computer equipment to a portable video player or portable musicplayer.

In a second approach, users may have multiple types of user equipment bywhich they access content and obtain media guidance. For example, someusers may have home networks that are accessed by in-home and mobiledevices. Users may control in-home devices via a media guidanceapplication implemented on a remote device. For example, users mayaccess an online media guidance application on a website via a personalcomputer at their office, or a mobile device such as a PDA orweb-enabled mobile telephone. The user may set various settings (e.g.,recordings, reminders, or other settings) on the online guidanceapplication to control the user's in-home equipment. The online guidemay control the user's equipment directly, or by communicating with amedia guidance application on the user's in-home equipment. Varioussystems and methods for user equipment devices communicating, where theuser equipment devices are in locations remote from each other, isdiscussed in, for example, Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,046,801, issuedOct. 25, 2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety.

In a third approach, users of user equipment devices inside and outsidea home can use their media guidance application to communicate directlywith content source 516 to access content. Specifically, within a home,users of user television equipment 502 and user computer equipment 504may access the media guidance application to navigate among and locatedesirable content. Users may also access the media guidance applicationoutside of the home using wireless user communications devices 506 tonavigate among and locate desirable content.

In a fourth approach, user equipment devices may operate in a cloudcomputing environment to access cloud services. In a cloud computingenvironment, various types of computing services for content sharing,storage or distribution (e.g., video sharing sites or social networkingsites) are provided by a collection of network-accessible computing andstorage resources, referred to as “the cloud.” For example, the cloudcan include a collection of server computing devices, which may belocated centrally or at distributed locations, that provide cloud-basedservices to various types of users and devices connected via a networksuch as the Internet via communications network 514. These cloudresources may include one or more content sources 416 and one or moremedia guidance data sources 518. In addition or in the alternative, theremote computing sites may include other user equipment devices, such asuser television equipment 502, user computer equipment 504, and wirelessuser communications device 506. For example, the other user equipmentdevices may provide access to a stored copy of a video or a streamedvideo. In such embodiments, user equipment devices may operate in apeer-to-peer manner without communicating with a central server.

The cloud provides access to services, such as content storage, contentsharing, or social networking services, among other examples, as well asaccess to any content described above, for user equipment devices.Services can be provided in the cloud through cloud computing serviceproviders, or through other providers of online services. For example,the cloud-based services can include a content storage service, acontent sharing site, a social networking site, or other services viawhich user-sourced content is distributed for viewing by others onconnected devices. These cloud-based services may allow a user equipmentdevice to store content to the cloud and to receive content from thecloud rather than storing content locally and accessing locally-storedcontent.

A user may use various content capture devices, such as camcorders,digital cameras with video mode, audio recorders, mobile phones, andhandheld computing devices, to record content. The user can uploadcontent to a content storage service on the cloud either directly, forexample, from user computer equipment 504 or wireless usercommunications device 506 having content capture feature. Alternatively,the user can first transfer the content to a user equipment device, suchas user computer equipment 504. The user equipment device storing thecontent uploads the content to the cloud using a data transmissionservice on communications network 514. In some embodiments, the userequipment device itself is a cloud resource, and other user equipmentdevices can access the content directly from the user equipment deviceon which the user stored the content.

Cloud resources may be accessed by a user equipment device using, forexample, a web browser, a media guidance application, a desktopapplication, a mobile application, and/or any combination of accessapplications of the same. The user equipment device may be a cloudclient that relies on cloud computing for application delivery, or theuser equipment device may have some functionality without access tocloud resources. For example, some applications running on the userequipment device may be cloud applications, i.e., applications deliveredas a service over the Internet, while other applications may be storedand run on the user equipment device. In some embodiments, a user devicemay receive content from multiple cloud resources simultaneously. Forexample, a user device can stream audio from one cloud resource whiledownloading content from a second cloud resource. Or a user device candownload content from multiple cloud resources for more efficientdownloading. In some embodiments, user equipment devices can use cloudresources for processing operations such as the processing operationsperformed by processing circuitry described in relation to FIG. 4.

As referred herein, the term “in response to” refers to initiated as aresult of. For example, a first action being performed in response to asecond action may include interstitial steps between the first actionand the second action. As referred herein, the term “directly inresponse to” refers to caused by. For example, a first action beingperformed directly in response to a second action may not includeinterstitial steps between the first action and the second action.

A media guidance application may be configured to record portions ofmedia assets based on a user's criteria. For example, the media guidanceapplication may perform (e.g., via control circuitry 404) process 600 ofFIG. 6 to record portions of media assets based on a user's criteria.

At step 602, the media guidance application receives (e.g., via controlcircuitry 404 from user input interface 410) input from the userincluding a user selection of a media asset and a criterion forretaining portions of the media asset. For example, the media guidanceapplication may receive user input while display 200 (FIG. 2) or display300 (FIG. 3) are displayed to the user. The media guidance applicationmay receive a user selection of media listing 208 (FIG. 2) or medialisting 308 (FIG. 3). The user selection may be received via a remotecontrol or another user input device (e.g., keyboard, mouse, touchscreen interface, etc.).

The media guidance application may receive the criterion as text inputfrom the user. For example, the media guidance application may generatefor display an input area where the user is able to enter text. Userinput may be received via a remote control, keyboard, touch screeninterface, a voice interface (e.g., a microphone coupled with voicerecognition algorithm), or any other suitable device.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application, when receivinginput from the user that includes a user selection of the media assetand a criterion for retaining portions of the media asset may performthe following actions. The media guidance application may receive aselection of a media listing associated with the media asset. Forexample, the media guidance application may receive the selection of amedia listing while display 200 (FIG. 2) or display 300 (FIG. 3) isdisplayed to the user. The user selection may be received through userinput interface 410.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may be able to takeuser input and the criterion in the form of a natural language query.For example, a user may provide a voice query “Record all Olympic icehockey games.” In response, the media guidance application may convertthe query into input to record all Olympic broadcasts and use “icehockey” or “ice hockey games” as the criterion.

The media guidance application may retrieve, from a database that storesassociations between entities, a plurality of entities that are relatedto the media asset. The database may further include informationdescribing relationships between the entities. Each entity may be storedas a node and the database may include a semantic network or knowledgegraph of these nodes, where the semantic network maintains relationshipsbetween certain nodes. These relationships may be stored as percentagevalues of how related the entities are. Knowledge graphs and theirfeatures are described in greater detail in U.S. patent application Ser.No. 14/501,504, filed Sep. 30, 2014, U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/500,309, filed Sep. 29, 2014, and U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/448,308, filed Jul. 31, 2014, which are hereby incorporated byreference herein in their entireties. For example, the media guidanceapplication may have access to a database that stores entities relatedto media assets. Specifically, a media asset such as an Olympicbroadcast may have various entities related to it. If the Olympicbroadcast is scheduled to include a number of sports (e.g., ice hockey,skiing, snowboarding, etc.), the database may include those sports asentities. Additionally or alternatively, specific athletes participatingin the sports included in the Olympic broadcast may be included asentities in the database associated with the broadcast.

The database may be located at media content source 516 or at mediaguidance data source 518. Alternatively, the database may have portionsat both media content source 516 and media guidance data source 518. Themedia guidance application may access the database throughcommunications network 514 via I/O path 402 (FIG. 4). The media guidanceapplication may store the received entities in storage 408.

The media guidance application may generate for display one or moreindications corresponding to one or more entities of the plurality ofentities that are most closely related to the media asset. For example,the media guidance may retrieve the received indications from storage408. The retrieved entities may be stored in a data structure (e.g., anarray). The media guidance application may determine how many entitieshave been received from the database. The media guidance application mayretrieve (e.g., from storage 408) a threshold value for the number ofindications associated with entities that are to be displayed. If thenumber of entities is greater than the threshold value, the mediaguidance application may select those entities that are most closelyrelated with the media asset. For example, the media asset may haverelationship strength value for each entity that it is related to. Themedia guidance application may compare those values in order todetermine which entities should have associated indications generatedfor display. For example, if the threshold value is ten, then the mediaguidance application may generate for display indications of tenentities that have the highest relationship strength values (i.e., theten most closely related entities).

Those entities may be people, places, actors, characters, sports,videos, songs, etc. For example, athletes participating in the sportsbeing broadcast may be entities. In another example, the differentsports may be located in different places (e.g., skiing in the mountainsand ice skating at a rink). The media guidance application may providean option to a user to record segments that include sporting eventsoccurring in the mountains and/or at a skating rink. Videos may includevideos of athletes describing their bios, etc. The media guidanceapplication may receive a user selection of one or more of thoseentities to use in the criterion.

At step 604, the media guidance application generates (e.g., via controlcircuitry 404) a first set of keywords for a first segment of the mediaasset, a second set of keywords for a second segment of the media asset,and a third set of keywords for a third segment of the media asset byexecuting a content recognition algorithm on the first segment, thesecond segment, and the third segment, wherein the first segment withinthe media asset precedes the second segment and the second segmentprecedes the third segment. For example, the media guidance applicationmay receive (e.g., from media content source 516 and/or media guidancedata source 518) a portion of the media asset. The media guidanceapplication may split the portion of the media asset into three segments(first, second, and third segments). The media guidance application mayperform the splitting in various ways. For example, the media guidanceapplication may split the segments according to time (e.g., five-minuteintervals). The media guidance application may also split the segmentsinto segments that fit the criterion and segments that do not. Forexample, the media guidance application may execute the contentrecognition algorithm against each video frame. As video frames keepmatching the criterion, they are maintained as the same segment. As soonas the media guidance application reaches a video frame that does notfit the criterion, a new segment is started and all the frames that donot fit the criterion are stored as one segment until a frame is reachedthat matches the criterion again. It should be noted that once a segmentis finalized, (i.e., frames that do not match the criterion end andframes that match the criterion begin), audio content recognition may beexecuted against the segment.

The media guidance application may execute a content recognitionalgorithm against each segment. The content recognition algorithm mayinclude a visual content recognition process that is able to scan thevideo of the segment and recognize objects and places in the segment.For example, if a segment includes a portion of a soccer game, the mediaguidance application may execute a visual content recognition processthat may recognize a soccer ball, the name of the stadium and the citywhere the game is being played, names of teams that are playing, thename of the competition, etc. Those objects may have associated keywordswhich the media guidance application may add to the set of keywords forthe specific segment. Additionally or alternatively the media guidanceapplication may execute an audio content recognition process that mayrecognize words associated with the segment. The words associated withthe segment may be added to the set of keywords as well.

It should be noted that instead of executing a content recognitionalgorithm, the media guidance application may transmit video and audioinformation associated with the segment to another device where thecontent recognition algorithm may be executed and the resulting keywordsmay be sent back. In some embodiments, the content recognition algorithmmay be executed at media guidance content source 516 and/or mediaguidance data source 518. In those embodiments, the media guidanceapplication may transmit a request to execute the content recognitionalgorithm on a specific segment. The media guidance application mayinclude as part of the request the start time of the segment, the endtime of the segment and a media asset identifier associated with themedia asset that the segment is in. The media guidance application mayreceive back a set of keywords for the segment. The media guidanceapplication may store the set of keywords in a keyword file associatedwith the segment.

If more keywords are required, the current set of keywords may beexpanded to include additional keywords that are related to thosealready in the keyword file. Process 700 of FIG. 7 illustrates onepossible method of generating more keywords. At step 702, the mediaguidance application retrieves (e.g., via control circuitry 404) one ormore keywords stored in a keyword file. The keyword file may be locatedin storage 408. Additionally or alternatively, the keyword file may belocated at media content source 516 and/or media guidance data source518. In those instances, the media guidance application may receive thekeyword file via communications network 514.

At step 704, the media guidance application determines (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 404) whether a number of keywords in the keyword filemeet or exceed a threshold value. For example, a threshold value may beset by a service provider and may be updated from time to time. Thethreshold value may be stored in storage 408. The threshold value may bepreconfigured by the manufacturer or content distributor or specified bythe user. If the number of keywords in the keyword file meet or exceedthe threshold value, the media guidance application, at step 716,transmits (e.g., via control circuitry through I/O port 402) anindication that the keyword file is ready for further processing (e.g.,a comparison with another keyword file).

However, if the number of keywords in the keyword file does not meet orexceed the threshold value, process 700 moves to step 706. At step 706,the media guidance application selects (e.g., via control circuitry 404)a previously unselected keyword from the keyword file. For example, themedia guidance application may copy the keyword from hard disk intomemory.

At step 708, the media guidance application retrieves (e.g., via controlcircuitry 404), from a database, for the selected keyword a previouslyunselected object that is most related to the selected keyword. Thedatabase may be located at media content source 516 and/or mediaguidance data source 518, as described above. For example, the mediaguidance application may generate a query to the database to search forobjects that are related to the selected keyword. Specifically, if theselected keyword is “Lindsey Vonn,” the media guidance application mayretrieve objects associated with “Lindsey Vonn” (e.g., sport, herOlympic events, etc.).

At step 710, the media guidance application adds (e.g., via controlcircuitry 404), to the keyword file, keywords that are associated withthe most related object, and marks the previously unselected object andthe previous unselected keyword as selected. For example, if LindseyVonn's most related object is the event that she competes in the most(e.g., downhill slalom), the media guidance application may add thatkeyword to the keyword file. The media guidance application may thenmark “downhill slalom” as a previously selected object. Also the keyword“Lindsey Vonn” is marked selected at this time.

At step 712, the media guidance application determines whether all thekeywords in the keyword file have been previously selected. If all thekeywords have not previously been selected, process 700 moves to step706, where steps 706-710 are repeated for each keyword in the keywordfile. If all keywords have previously been selected, process 700 movesto step 714.

At step 714, the media guidance application marks (e.g., via controlcircuitry 304) all keywords in the keyword file as previouslyunselected. For example, the media guidance application may store thekeywords in a data structure (e.g., an array) in memory. The mediaguidance application may iterate through each keyword and perform steps708-710 on each keyword. The media guidance application may mark akeyword as selected by moving a pointer from one keyword to the next ina specific order. However, in step 714, the pointer is reset back to thebeginning of the data structure so that the keywords may be selectedagain.

After step 714, process 700 moves to step 704, where the media guidanceapplication determines again whether the number of keywords in thekeyword file meets or exceeds the threshold value. As described above,process 700 continues until the threshold value is met or exceeded.

It should be noted that, in some embodiments, programming instructionsfor process 700 may be encoded onto a non-transitory storage medium(e.g., storage device 408) as a set of instructions to be decoded andexecuted by processing circuitry (e.g., processing circuitry 406).Processing circuitry may in turn provide instructions to othersub-circuits contained within control circuitry 404, such as the tuning,video generating, encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaling,analog/digital conversion circuitry, and the like.

It is contemplated that the descriptions of FIG. 7 may be used with anyother embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the descriptionsdescribed in relation to the process of FIG. 7 may be done inalternative orders or in parallel to further the purposes of thisdisclosure. For example, control circuitry 404 may submit multiplequeries to the database in parallel, or it may submit multiple queriesto a plurality of similar databases in order to reduce lag and speed theexecution of the process. Furthermore, it should be noted that theprocess of FIG. 7 may be implemented on a combination of appropriatelyconfigured software and hardware, and that any of the devices orequipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 4-5 could be used to implementone or more portions of the process.

At step 606, the media guidance application generates (e.g., via controlcircuitry 404) a fourth set of keywords based on the criterion. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may generate the fourth setof keywords based on the criterion as follows. The media guidanceapplication may convert the criterion into textual data and parse thetextual data into a plurality of terms. For example, if the criterion isreceived as one or more user selections of specific terms generated fordisplay, the media guidance application converts those selections intotext data. Specifically, each selection may be an object that includestext data representing the object. The media guidance application mayparse the text for each object into terms. For example, if textual dataincludes “ice hockey” and “Canada,” the media guidance application mayparse the data into two terms.

The media guidance application may retrieve, from a database thatincludes associations between terms and keywords, keywords associatedwith each term of the plurality of terms. For example, the mediaguidance application may query a database located at media contentsource 516 and/or media guidance data source 518. The database may alsobe stored in storage 408 on the same device where the media guidanceapplication resides. In some embodiments, portions of the database maybe split among some or all of these locations. The media guidanceapplication may transmit a request to the database for keywordsassociated with the terms “ice hockey” and “Canada.” The media guidanceapplication may receive back keywords such as “puck,” “hockey stick,”“net minder,” etc. The media guidance application may add to the fourthset of keywords the keywords associated with each term of the pluralityof terms (e.g., the keywords above). The fourth set of keywords may bestored in a keyword file in storage 408.

Additionally or alternatively, the media guidance application mayexecute process 700 of FIG. 7 to add to the keywords located in thekeyword file, as described above in relation to generating keywords forsegments.

At this point, the media guidance application compares the keywordsassociated with each segment with keywords associated with the criterionin order to determine which of the first, second, and third segmentsmatch the criterion. At step 608, the media guidance applicationcompares (e.g., via control circuitry 404) the first set of keywords,the second set of keywords, and the third set of keywords with thefourth set of keywords. For example, the media guidance application mayiterate through each set of keywords to determine which keywords match.The media guidance application may store the results of the comparisonin storage 408 or remotely at media content source 516 and/or mediaguidance data source 518. Specifically, the media guidance applicationmay store the number of keywords that matched between the two sets, thetotal number of keywords in the set associated with the segment, and thetotal number of keywords in the set associated with the criterion. Itshould be noted that any combination of that information may be stored.Additionally or alternatively, the media guidance application may storea percentage of keywords that match. This may be the percentage ofkeywords that matched based on the matching keywords and the keywordsassociated with the segment and/or a percentage of keywords that matchedbased on the keywords that matched and the keywords associated withcriterion.

At step 610, the media guidance application determines (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 404) based on the comparing, that the first segmentand the third segment match the criterion, and that the second segmentdoes not match the criterion. The media guidance application may makethe determination based on any of a number of words matching, apercentage of words matching based on the keywords that matched and thekeywords associated with the segment and/or the keywords that matchedand the keywords associated with the criterion.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine that anumber of keywords in the first set of keywords that matches keywords inthe fourth set of keywords meets a threshold value and determine that anumber of keywords in the second set of keywords that matches keywordsin the fourth set of keywords does not meet the threshold value. In someembodiments, the threshold value may be a specific number of keywordsthat must match in order for the segment to match the criterion. Thatnumber may be as small as one. In other embodiments, the threshold valuemay be based a percentage of words matching based on the keywords thatmatched and the keywords associated with the segment and/or the keywordsthat matched and the keywords associated with the criterion.

For example, if the received criterion is “ice hockey” that hasassociated keywords such as “goalie,” “puck “and” hockey stick,” themedia guidance application may try to match those keywords to thekeywords associated with the segments. Thus, if the content recognitionalgorithm detects a puck in the first segment, the keyword “puck” isadded to the set of keywords associated with the first segment. Thus, atleast one keyword will match between the first segment and thecriterion.

For example, if a keyword file associated with a segment has twentykeywords, the keyword file associated with the criterion has one hundredkeywords, and ten keywords match, the media guidance application may beconfigured for different ways to determine whether a segment matches thecriterion. For example, 50% of the words in the keyword file associatedwith the segment matched; thus a threshold value of 50% or lowerproduces a match. However, only 10% of the keyword file associated withthe criterion match. Thus, a threshold value of 10% or lower calculatedin this manner meets the criterion. Thus, two different types ofthreshold values are possible.

At step 612, the media guidance application, based on determining thatthe second segment does not match the criterion, stores (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 404 in storage 408) a delete indicator for the secondsegment that indicates that the second segment is to be deleted. Incontinuing with the example above, if the set of keywords associatedwith the second segment does not match any keywords associated with thecriterion or matches too few keywords (i.e., a threshold value is notreached), the media guidance application may determine that the secondsegment does not match the criterion. The media guidance application mayproceed to mark the second segment for deletion. For example, the mediaguidance application may store the delete indicator with metadataassociated with the segment or in a segment map. As referred to herein,the term “segment map” refers to a data structure that includes avariable for each segment of a media asset in order to indicate whethereach segment is to be retained or deleted.

Steps 608 to 612 may be illustrated by process 800 of FIG. 8.Specifically, process 800 illustrates how the media guidance applicationdetermines whether to mark a segment for deletion or to retain asegment. At step 802, the media guidance application retrieves (e.g.,via control circuitry 404 from storage 408) a set of keywords associatedwith a criterion and a set of keywords associated with a segment. Forexample, the media guidance application may retrieve the sets ofkeywords from respective keyword files and copy the sets of keywordsinto memory as data structures (e.g., arrays). To continue with theexample above, in this step the media guidance application may retrievekeywords “puck,” “goalie,” “hockey stick,” etc., that are associatedwith the criterion. Keywords associated with each segment are alsoretrieved.

At step 804, the media guidance application sets (e.g., via controlcircuitry 404) a first pointer to the beginning of the set of keywordsassociated with the criterion and a second pointer to the set ofkeywords associated with the segment. For example, the media guidanceapplication may set the first pointer to the beginning of the datastructure corresponding to a segment and the second pointer to the datastructure corresponding to the criterion. In this step the mediaguidance application sets a pointer to iterate through the keywordsassociated with the criterion.

At step 806, the media guidance application determines (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 404) whether the first pointer is at the end of theset of keywords that are associated with the criterion. If the firstpointer is at the end of the set of keywords and this step is reached,then process 800 has already iterated through all the keywords and athreshold value has not been reached in order to find a match betweenthe segment and the criterion. Thus, the media guidance application adds(e.g., via control circuitry 404) a delete indicator to the metadata ofthe segment and updates a segment map indicating that the segment is tobe deleted. If the first pointer is not at the end of the set ofkeywords, process 800 moves to step 808. This step is part of theiteration process that insures that all keywords are properly selectedfor comparison and no words are missed.

At step 808, the media guidance application advances (e.g., via controlcircuitry 404) the first pointer at a next keyword of the set ofkeywords associated with the criterion and rests the second pointer tothe beginning of the set of keywords associated with the segment. Forexample, the media guidance application may advance the first pointer atthe next variable within the data structure associated with thecriterion and set the second pointer to the beginning of the datastructure associated with the segment. This step is part of theiteration process described above.

At step 810, the media guidance application determines (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 404) whether the second pointer is at the end of theset of keywords that are associated with the segment. If the mediaguidance application determines that the second pointer is at the end ofthe set of keywords that are associated with the segment, then aspecific word in the set of keywords associated with the criterion didnot match any keywords associated with the segment. This step is part ofthe iteration process. In this step, the second pointer is reset so thatthe next keyword associated with the criterion can be compared againstall the keywords associated with the segment. Therefore, process 800moves to step 806, described above in order to process the next keywordin the set associated with the criterion. If the media guidanceapplication determines that the second pointer is not at the end of theset of keywords that are associated with the segment, process 800 movesto step 812.

At step 812, the media guidance application advances (e.g., via controlcircuitry 404) the second pointer to a next keyword of the set ofkeywords associated with the segment. At step 814, the media guidanceapplication compares (e.g., via control circuitry 404) the keywordassociated with the first pointer with the keywords associated with thesecond pointer. This may be a simple character-by-character comparison.In some embodiments, if a certain portion of the word matches a matchmay be found. For example, a match may be found between “athlete” and“athletes” despite the words not being fully the same.

At step 816, the media guidance application determines (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 404) whether the keyword associated with the firstpointer matches the keyword associated with the second pointer. If amatch is not found, process 800 moves to step 812, where steps 810 to816 are repeated. If a match is found process 800 moves to step 818.Steps 812 to 816 illustrate how a specific keyword associated with thecriterion is compared with every keyword associated with a segment.

At step 818, the media guidance application increments (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 404) a keyword match counter. The media guidanceapplication may maintain a keyword match counter for process 800 inorder keep track of the number of keywords that have matched between thetwo sets of keywords being compared. The keyword match counter may bestored in storage 408 or remotely at media content source 516 and/ormedia guidance data source 518.

At step 820, the media guidance application determines (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 404) whether the keyword match counter is equal to oris greater than a threshold value. It should be noted that the thresholdvalue and the keyword match counter may be a specific number orpercentage as described above. If the keyword match counter is not equalto or greater than the threshold value, process 800 moves to step 806,where steps 806 to 818 are repeated. If the keyword match counter isequal to or greater than the threshold value, process 800 moves to step822.

At step 822 the media guidance application updates (e.g., via controlcircuitry 404) the segment map, indicating that the segment is to beretained. Steps 818 to 822 use a keyword match counter to determinewhether enough keywords match between the segment and the criterion forthe segment to be retained.

It should be noted that, in some embodiments, programming instructionsfor process 800 may be encoded onto a non-transitory storage medium(e.g., storage device 408) as a set of instructions to be decoded andexecuted by processing circuitry (e.g., processing circuitry 406).Processing circuitry may in turn provide instructions to othersub-circuits contained within control circuitry 404, such as the tuning,video generating, encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaling,analog/digital conversion circuitry, and the like.

It is contemplated that the descriptions of FIG. 8 may be used with anyother embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the descriptionsdescribed in relation to the process of FIG. 8 may be done inalternative orders or in parallel to further the purposes of thisdisclosure. Furthermore, it should be noted that the process of FIG. 8may be implemented on a combination of appropriately configured softwareand hardware, and that any of the devices or equipment discussed inrelation to FIGS. 4-5 could be used to implement one or more portions ofthe process.

When the media guidance application finishes executing (e.g., viaprocess 800) step 612, the media guidance application moves to step 614.At step 614, the media guidance application compares (e.g., via controlcircuitry 404) the first set of keywords to the third set of keywords.The media guidance application may perform this step in the same manneras step 608, where keyword sets are compared. At this step, the mediaguidance application determines whether the first and the third segmentcorrespond to the same presentation. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine whether the first segment is associated withone ice hockey game and the third segment with another ice hockey game.

At step 616, the media guidance application, based on the comparing ofthe first set of keywords and the third set of keywords, determines(e.g., via control circuitry 404) whether the third segment matches thefirst segment. The media guidance application may make this determinesin the same manner as described in relation to step 610. Specifically, apercentage of matching keywords may be used as well as absolute matchingvalues that are compared to a threshold value of the same type.

At step 618, the media guidance application, based on determining thatthe third segment matches the first segment, removes (e.g., via controlcircuitry 404) the delete indicator for the second media asset. Forexample, process 900 of FIG. 9 illustrates one possible way of removingthe delete indicator.

At step 902 the media guidance application determines (e.g., via controlcircuitry 404) that a third segment matches the criterion. The mediaguidance application may make the determination as described in relationto step 610.

At step 904, the media guidance application, based on a segment map,determines (e.g., via control circuitry 404) that the second segment hasnot matched the criterion and the first segment did match the criterion.The media guidance application may access the segment map stored instorage 408, media content source 516, or media guidance data source518. As described above, the segment map may be a data structure (e.g.,an array) that includes a variable for every segment. The data structuremay include an identifier corresponding to each segment and an indicatorthat indicates whether the segment is to be retained or not. Theindicator may be a Boolean variable where the value of “True” indicatesthat the segment is to be retained and the value of “False” indicatesthat the segment is to be deleted.

At step 906, the media guidance application parses (e.g., via controlcircuitry 404) metadata associated with the second segment into aplurality of tags and stores the plurality of tags in a data structure.For example, the metadata associated with each segment may be stored inan XML file. One XML file may be used for all segments. Alternatively,one XML file may be used for each segment. The media guidanceapplication may read the tags of the XML file and store the tags in adata structure (e.g., an array).

At step 908, the media guidance application sets (e.g., via controlcircuitry 404) a pointer to a beginning of the data structure. Thepointer may simply be set to an address in memory representing thebeginning of the data structure. At step 912, the media guidanceapplication determines (e.g., via control circuitry 404) whether thepointer is at the last tag of the plurality of tags within the datastructure. It should be noted that if process 900 reaches this pointwithout finding a tag associated with the delete indicator, then thedelete indicator is not present in the XML file associated with thisparticular segment. Thus, process 900 moves to step 910 where the mediaguidance application transmits (e.g., via control circuitry 404) anotification indicating that the delete indicator has not been found.However, if the pointer is not at the last tag of the plurality of tagswithin the data structure process 900 moves to step 914.

At step 914, the media guidance application advances (e.g., via controlcircuitry 404) a pointer to the next tag of the plurality of tags. Forexample, the media guidance application may set the pointer to theaddress in memory associated with the next tag. At step 916, the mediaguidance application determines (e.g., via control circuitry 404)whether the tag associated with the pointer is the delete indicator. Themedia guidance application may make the determination by comparing thetext of the tag to a known delete indicator. For example, <deleteindicator> may be the tag used in the XML file. At step 918, the mediaguidance application updates (e.g., via control circuitry 404) themetadata associated with the second media asset to remove the tagassociated with the delete indicator. For example, the media guidanceapplication may remove <delete indicator> text from the metadataassociated with a segment and save the metadata to storage (e.g.,storage 408).

It should be noted that, in some embodiments, programming instructionsfor process 900 may be encoded onto a non-transitory storage medium(e.g., storage device 408) as a set of instructions to be decoded andexecuted by processing circuitry (e.g., processing circuitry 406).Processing circuitry may, in turn, provide instructions to othersub-circuits contained within control circuitry 404, such as the tuning,video generating, encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaling,analog/digital conversion circuitry, and the like.

It is contemplated that the descriptions of FIG. 9 may be used with anyother embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the descriptionsdescribed in relation to the process of FIG. 9 may be done inalternative orders or in parallel to further the purposes of thisdisclosure. Furthermore, it should be noted that the process of FIG. 9may be implemented on a combination of appropriately configured softwareand hardware, and that any of the devices or equipment discussed inrelation to FIGS. 4-5 could be used to implement one or more portions ofthe process.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may based ondetermining that the third segment does not match the first segment, adda new event indicator to the third segment. For example, the mediaguidance application may add the new event indicator to the metadatacorresponding to the third segment. Alternatively or additionally, themedia guidance application may add the start time of the new eventwithin the segment to the metadata of the segment. This information maybe stored in storage 408 or remotely at media content source 516 and/ormedia guidance data source 518.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may update the newevent indicator with a location within the third segment where a firstmatch between the third set of keywords and the fourth set of keywordsoccurred and delete a portion of the third segment prior to thelocation. This feature may be desirable in the instances where the newevent starts towards the end of the segment and a user may need to viewor review a large chunk of the segment in order to get to the contentthat the user desires to consume. Similarly, in some embodiments, themedia guidance application may delete an end portion of a prior segmentafter the prior event has ended. It should be noted that these portionsmay be deleted or marked for deletion for later removal.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may automaticallydelete all the segments marked for deletion. Additionally oralternatively, the media guidance application may prompt a user to makethe decision. For example, when a user selects a media listing toconsume the recorded media asset, the media guidance application mayprompt the user to delete the segments marked for deletion. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may provide an option to theuser to hide the segments that are marked for deletion by, for example,skipping them during playback.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine afirst plurality of segments of the media asset that have an associateddelete indicator and a second plurality of segments of the media assetthat have an associated event indicator. The media guidance applicationmay make the determination by analyzing the metadata associated witheach segment. Additionally or alternatively, the media guidanceapplication may analyze the segment map. Thus, the segment map may beconfigured to store, in addition to the delete indicators, new eventindicators. The media guidance application may, based on thedetermining, update the media asset by deleting the first plurality ofsegments and insert a cue to indicate every new event within the mediaasset. For example, in addition to deleting all the segments that haveassociated delete indicators, the media guidance application may insertone or more frames to indicate to the user that a new event has startedor is about to start.

In some embodiments, as described above, the first, the second, and thethird segments may be contiguous. In some embodiments, each of thefirst, second and third segment include a video frame. In someembodiments, each segment is a video frame.

The above-described embodiments of the present disclosure are presentedfor purposes of illustration and not of limitation, and the presentdisclosure is limited only by the claims that follow. Furthermore, itshould be noted that the features and limitations described in any oneembodiment may be applied to any other embodiment herein, and flowchartsor examples relating to one embodiment may be combined with any otherembodiment in a suitable manner, done in different orders, or done inparallel. In addition, the systems and methods described herein may beperformed in real time. It should also be noted, the systems and/ormethods described above may be applied to, or used in accordance with,other systems and/or methods.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for causing to be recorded content, themethod comprising: determining to record the content without portions ofthe content that do not meet a criterion; identifying a first segment ofthe content, a second segment of the content, and a third segment of thecontent, wherein the first segment precedes the second segment, and thesecond segment precedes the third segment and are continuous segments ofthe content; determining that the first segment and the third segmentmeet the criterion and that the second segment does not meet thecriterion, wherein determining that a number of keywords in the firstsegment that match keywords in the third segment meets a thresholdvalue; and determining that a number of keywords in the second segmentthat match keywords in the first segment does not meet the thresholdvalue; determining that the first segment and the third segment arerelated; and despite the second segment not meeting the criterion,causing to be recorded the first segment, the second segment, and thethird segment in response to determining that the first segment and thethird segment are related.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising,based on determining that the third segment is not related to the firstsegment, adding a new event indicator to the third segment.
 3. Themethod of claim 2, further comprising: updating the new event indicatorwith a location within the third segment where a first match between thefirst segment and the third segment occurred; and deleting a portion ofthe third segment prior to the location.
 4. The method of claim 2,further comprising: determining a first plurality of segments of thecontent that have an associated delete indicator and a second pluralityof segments of the content that have an associated event indicator; andbased on the determining, updating the content, wherein the updatingcomprises deleting the first plurality of segments and inserting a cueto indicate every new event within the content.
 5. The method of claim1, wherein determining to record the content without portions of thecontent that do not meet the criterion further comprises: receiving aselection of a media listing associated with the content; retrieving,from a database that stores associations between entities, a pluralityof entities that are related to the content; generating for display oneor more indications corresponding to one or more entities of theplurality of entities that are most closely related to the content; andreceiving a user selection of one or more entities to use in thecriterion.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein the plurality of entitiescomprises people, places, actors, characters, sports, videos, and songs.7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first segment, the second segment,and the third segment are contiguous.
 8. The method of claim 1, furthercomprises: converting the criterion into textual data and parsing thetextual data into a plurality of terms; retrieving, from a database thatcomprises associations between terms and keywords, keywords associatedwith each term of the plurality of terms; and adding to the fourth setof keywords the keywords associated with each term of the plurality ofterms.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the first, second, andthird segment comprise a video frame.
 10. A system for causing to berecorded content, the system comprising: storage; and control circuitryconfigured to: determine to record the content without portions of thecontent that do not meet a criterion; identify a first segment of thecontent, a second segment of the content, and a third segment of thecontent, wherein the first segment precedes the second segment, and thesecond segment precedes the third segment and are continuous segments ofthe content; determine that the first segment and the third segment meetthe criterion and that the second segment does not meet the criterion,wherein a number of keywords in the first segment that matches keywordsin the third segment meets a threshold value, and a number of keywordsin the second segment that matches keywords in the first segment doesnot meet the threshold value; determine that the first segment and thethird segment are related; and despite the second segment having adelete indicator, cause to be recorded the first segment, the secondsegment, and the third segment in response to determining that the firstsegment and the second third segment are related.
 11. The system ofclaim 10, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to, basedon determining that the third segment is not related to the firstsegment, add a new event indicator to the third segment.
 12. The systemof claim 11, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to:update the new event indicator with a location within the third segmentwhere a first match between the first segment and the third segmentoccurred; and delete a portion of the third segment prior to thelocation.
 13. The system of claim 11, wherein the control circuitry isfurther configured to: determine a first plurality of segments of thecontent that have an associated delete indicator and a second pluralityof segments of the content that have an associated event indicator; andbased on the determining, update the content, wherein the updatingcomprises deleting the first plurality of segments and inserting a cueto indicate every new event within the content.
 14. The system of claim10, wherein the control circuitry is further configured, whendetermining to record the content without portions of the content thatdo not meet the criterion to: receive a selection of a media listingassociated with the content; retrieve, from a database that storesassociations between entities, a plurality of entities that are relatedto the content; generate for display one or more indicationscorresponding to one or more entities of the plurality of entities thatare most closely related to the content; and receive the user selectionof one or more entities to use in the criterion.
 15. The system of claim14, wherein the plurality of entities comprises people, places, actors,characters, sports, videos, and songs.
 16. The system of claim 10,wherein the first segment, the second segment, and the third segment arecontiguous.
 17. The system of claim 10, wherein the control circuitry isfurther configured, to: convert the criterion into textual data andparsing the textual data into a plurality of terms; retrieve, from adatabase that comprises associations between terms and keywords,keywords associated with each term of the plurality of terms; and add tothe fourth set of keywords the keywords associated with each term of theplurality of terms.
 18. The system of claim 10, wherein each of thefirst, second, and third segment comprise a video frame.